Many Americans became familiar with New York City-born Aaron Jones from Queens on Saturday night following his 94 run display to lead the Americans to a 197/3 (17.3) to 194/5 win over rivals Canada.
It was an incredible display that put Aaron Jones at the top of the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup runs board thus far for most runs throughout the tournament.
Yet, the brilliant Aaron Jones did not grow up in the USA, rather he grew up mostly in Barbados, an island very important for Americans and American cricket.
For, there is another famous American hero who also was a cricket player that spent his foreign days in Barbados: President George Washington.
George Washington’s half-brother Lawrence Washington was suffering from tuberculosis so his doctors advised him to spend the winter in the hotter tropics.
The West Indies were the perfect place for this recovery as Lawrence’s uncle-in-law lived near Bridgetown, Barbados, one of the most urban places in all of British America at the time.
19-year-old George chose to go with Lawrence instead of Lawrence’s wife because the couple had lost three previous children and did not want to risk another death of a child through seafare, so she stayed home with their child.
The journey took six weeks as George and Lawrence journeyed out from northern Virginia and what would become the Washington, D.C. area on September 9th.
This would be President Washington’s first journey outside of his home province of Virginia, and he made sure to write about the dangers of the ocean, about his navigation learning, and plenty of other activities.
When the two brothers arrived in Bridgetown, they were amazed by how metropolitan it was, and how such a small island was so well-developed.
Despite being just 21 miles north to south and 14 miles east to west, Barbados was an economic boom with sugar cane and other agriculture.
Yet, it was not like the northern Virginia that George knew, rather it was densely populated operating as a major sea port, and not just a resource rich and major agriculture center.
Whether cricket was played in Barbados in the fall and winter of 1751/1752 or not is a matter of debate, but we do know that by 1780, cricket was vibrant in the culture of Barbados and we also know that cricket had made it to the British Americas by the 1600s.
At this time, cricket and the unfortunate non-civil institution of slavery coalesced with slaves often bowling and playing fielding positions for their masters, and also playing among themselves.
Both the enslaved and free populations were cricketers and many of the colonies and the enslaved people viewed the ability to play cricket as a way to prove to the British elite that they too could be equal and win. It also helped them appear more Anglicized to earn higher prestige.
President Washington’s visit to Barbados may have inspired him to play cricket, or he may have inspired Barbados to play more cricket. We really do not know the impact on this specific topic, though many historians are confident cricket was being played in both Virginia and Barbados by this time.
But, we do know that this was President Washington’s first introduction to the British Empire on an imperial scale, with Barbados being heavily fortified. This led to George Washington’s quest to join the British military.
We also know that President Washington contracted small pox during this Barbadian trip, thus allowing George Washington to gain immunity to the disease.
Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the Barbados trip really helped the 13 colonies toward their independence goals from 1776-1783 as the trip inspired George Washington to become an experienced general, and the trip gave him the immunity to fight in the American Revolutionary War as many other soldiers suffered small pox and died.
Likewise, Aaron Jones’s time in Barbados also greatly inspired his life as an American hero, for it is in Barbados and through his Barbadian parents that Aaron Jones gained an expertise in cricket.
He grew up playing for the Barbados U-16 and U-19 national teams, while also playing one season for the Combined Colleges and University team for West Indies university athletes. He later joined Barbados for domestic first-class and List A cricket. While he was eligible for both the West Indies and USA national teams, he eventually chose to play for the USA in 2018.
But, without the Barbadian youth cricket development and experience playing with the best players in one of the world’s most elite cricket national pools, the West Indies national team, it is doubtful we would be seeing such elite play.
However, President Washington’s impact on American cricket and cricket overall cannot be understated either, for his generation of Americans invented a precursor to limited overs cricket called wicket, with larger wickets and smaller bats that ended the match within a day. And the knowledge that the first president was a cricket player inspired early Americans to adopt the game until they largely switched to baseball. In fact, before this switch during the American Civil War, Americans and Canadians were so influential in cricket that they played the first official international match in 1844.
Now, when you see the major tournaments, it is largely thanks to the adoption of limited overs cricket by former players like George Washington that led to the creation of ODI and Twenty20 you see at the world cups.
And, this seems to be the version Aaron Jones is excelling at most playing Twenty20 cricket for the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots of the Caribbean Premier League, the Rangpur Riders of the Bangladesh Premier League, and the Seattle Orcas of the USA’s Major League Cricket.
Perhaps, this Barbadian-American connection through two American heroes and cricketers is foreshadowing for a future second round Super 8 match or a spot in the Final at Bridgetown’s historic Kensington Oval.
Yet, the connection has already given American cricketers a memory of a lifetime when Aaron Jones dropped to his knees in celebration after his match-winning six.
USA’s next chance at World Cup glory will be an early morning 10:30 am local time start on Thursday 6 June against a previous world champion and highly ranked Pakistan side, at Grand Prairie Stadium in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region of Texas.
KTH 